Valentin Bagratovich Topuridze

Born Dec. 31, 1907 (Jan. 13, 1908), in Tbilisi. Soviet sculptor. People’s Artist of the Georgian SSR (1958); member of the Academy of Arts of the USSR (1970). Became a member of the CPSU in 1945.

From 1924 to 1931, Topuridze studied at the Tbilisi Academy of Arts, where his teachers included N. Kandelaki, E. E. Lansere, la. Nikoladze, and I. Sharlemagne. His works are predominantly marked by epic images. Examples are the figure of Victory and the statue of A. Tsereteli (State Prize of the USSR, 1950) on the pediment of a theater in Chiatura (1945–50). Also noteworthy are Topuridze’s bronze monuments to V. I. Lenin in Tbilisi (1956), Kaliningrad (1958), and Rustavi (1961). Topuridze has sculpted several portraits, for example, V. I. Lenin (1961) and The Actor E. Bush (1966), both in bronze and housed at the Picture Gallery of Georgia in Tbilisi. Topuridze was awarded a medal and the Order of the Badge of Honor.